I'd be really interested to know how this compares with people who have insomnia, or trouble sleeping in general.
Is the difference just that these people can wake up feeling rested, whereas people with insomnia are always tired?
What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
21–30 of 125 posts
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#22I cannot relate, I need 7+, but I can imagine how much more you could get done if you had 20 hours a day to do it in. My grandmother was a short sleeper, she usually slept from midnight to 4am her whole life.
Was your grandma a caffeine addicted? My mom is sleeping, since when I remember, just 4-5 hours each night but she also takes 3 strong coffees during all the day and if she forget even one she instantly feels much more tired than usual. A shame I can't try because I am intolerant to caffeine that basically causes my stomach to hurt for hours... I would really like to halve my sleep need.
Seems like that would be explained from the caffeine withdrawal. Doesn't necessarily indicate she would need sleep more if she had less coffee.
Anyways there are many ways to ingest caffeine besides coffee.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#23I cannot relate, I need 7+, but I can imagine how much more you could get done if you had 20 hours a day to do it in. My grandmother was a short sleeper, she usually slept from midnight to 4am her whole life.
I hear you, I can hardly get by with less than 9 hours at times. If I do, I get really groggy.
In a way, it focuses my efforts while I'm awake, so that might be one benefit to this.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#24I've always been fascinated by discussions surrounding the varying amount of sleep necessary for different individuals. I feel like "unlocking" the secrets of these folks who can get by on such little sleep would do wonders for humanity, though I'm unsure if that is even within our abilities. As for a personal anecdote, I've experienced both ends of the sleep spectrum: in the past couple years I've had two 4-month lo…
I have found I sleep less the more I exercise and I don't have to exercise that much to affect my sleep pattern. At minimum I do 45 minutes of elliptical while watching netflix; current revisiting doctor who. If I am really into it I use the resistance machine.
While I know its different for many people that is the route I follow and at times I was worried about getting too little. I just find that daily exercise imparts an incredible amount of energy in my day. I try my best to take two walk breaks at work, usually a quarter mile. Others get smoke breaks, I get a me break.
Give it a try, it might work for you.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#25It is also important to note that you probably aren't a mutant. If you keep on having a very short amount of sleep, your body will stop telling you that you are tired, but you will still get the back effects of sleep deprivation.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#26I cannot relate, I need 7+, but I can imagine how much more you could get done if you had 20 hours a day to do it in. My grandmother was a short sleeper, she usually slept from midnight to 4am her whole life.
I've got a friend who can get by on ~5 hours/night pretty much indefinitely, without feeling the kind of awful brain-numbing fatigue and dangerous (for e.g. driving) levels of tiredness that I do with more than one night in a row of less than ~7 hours of sleep. A full 8-hour night is sleeping in to him.
The key to understanding why this is so great is to compare the extra time not to the total waking time that others get, but to the total time others get that isn't spoken for. Actual free time. Measured that way, he's consistently getting at least 50% more completely free time per week than I do on a good week.
The result of this is that he's pretty much a fear-of-missing-out[1] machine for all around him. While I've watched my hobbies and interests narrow by necessity as I've grown older[2] his have seemingly widened without any apparent ill effects.
That new TV show that's supposed to be really good? He's seen it. All those Criterion movies you've been meaning to watch? He's seen them all. Twice. This year's Oscar nominees? Yes. Even the documentaries and shorts. Video games? All of them that matter and most of the ones that don't. That one comic book series you heard good things about? He's read it. His academic field of choice? Keeps up with some journals. Writing, both fiction and academic? He has the time. Crafts? He juggles a couple of them. That funny thing you saw on the Internet? He was on the thread where it was first posted. Reading? Oh man. You don't want to know. It'd just make you sad.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
[2] Frustratingly, it seems like the most "productive" and useful hobbies and interests are the first to go, as when life demands more hours from you it always wants your most valuable ones, not your nearly-worthless ones when you're already drained and tired. No, those you get to keep, for what little good they do you.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#27It is also important to note that you probably aren't a mutant. If you keep on having a very short amount of sleep, your body will stop telling you that you are tired, but you will still get the back effects of sleep deprivation.
Yeah. I think the most important points from this article in identifying if you are, indeed a mutant are: she doesn't fight sleep, and she doesn't feel tired, on 4 hours.
When describing your short sleep patterns, if you use the words "I can function at...", you probably aren't one of these people. "Can function at" does not seem to be the same thing she is experiencing.
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#28Kind of crazy how little is known about sleep in the scientific community. The answer right now to "why" we need to sleep doesn't go much deeper than "because we get tired"
As a general rule, when somebody says "nobody knows X", they are almost certainly wrong. There are 7+ billion people on this planet. Someone probably knows something you don't, for just about any common language X you could form. (They just haven't told you about it!)
For instance:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373
Scientists don't just sit around twiddling their thumbs all day...
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#29The chemicals modafinil and armodafinil subjectively let me get away with a bit less sleep without the various consequences of caffeine. Used with enough sleep, they enter the realm of transhuman cognitive enhancer.
Sure, but even with enough sleep, don't they have other side effects? (Seriously asking, never taken them)
Re: What It’s Like to Need Hardly Any Sleep
#30This explains my whole family. It was common while growing up that the whole family was awake doing random things till 12-1am every day, even on school nights.
These days, I'm in bed no earlier than 12am, and wake up at 5am for work. Forwarding this article to my wife because she needs at least 9/10 hours and thinks I'm crazy.